Outsourcing porn

Some days, “Alyce” and “Justin” get off work, eat dinner and shoot a porno in the comfort of their home, half an hour south of Chico.

For three years, the romantically linked photographers took intimate pictures together and uploaded them to Tumblr. Last year, they decided to make their first adult film, which they uploaded to the Internet. Two dozen erotic flicks later, the pair have earned a little more than two grand. But cash or fame isn’t their motivation.

Fun is.

“It can be a major confidence booster,” said Justin, who, like Alyce, uses a pseudonym to maintain privacy. “It’s a funny feeling, it’s almost like having a secret identity as a superhero in a way.”

Those good times may end if a majority of California voters approve Proposition 60 in November.

Sponsored by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the bill would strictly enforce an existing federal regulation that all adult performers wear condoms and file permits before filming sex scenes. AHF President Michael Weinstein claims the initiative is necessary to protect adult performers’ health, but many opponents have questioned his motives. Meanwhile, at least 1,500 adult performers have protested the proposition.

If Prop. 60 passes, only performers with a financial stake in their movies would be liable, and only after self-styled condom cops exhausted an official complaint process.

“Even if you thought that condoms were the best way to keep us safe, you’re basically reducing one risk and creating another because of the lawsuits,” said Chanel Preston, chairwoman of the Adult Performer Advocacy Committee.

In other words, Prop. 60 may sound like a compassionate measure aimed at protecting a marginalized work force, but the workers themselves say it’s a stealth attack on their livelihood and safety.

So who’s shooting straight?

Condoms have technically been required by law in adult films since 1992, but any cursory watcher of pornography knows rubbers are as elusive as believable dialogue.

The adult entertainment industry largely self-regulates. Performers get tested for STDs every 14 days and must have a documented bill of clean health to perform in a film.

“Performers care more about their own safety than anybody else,” Preston said. “If we’re not healthy, we’re not working.”

Prop. 60 professes to eliminate any uncertainty of performers maintaining their health (and not using condoms) by opening up financial stakeholders to civil lawsuits from any California resident who wants to file one if the Occupational Safety and Health Administration first declines to take up their complaint.

But Preston said these suits could expose private information to stalkers, overzealous fans or disapproving religious groups. And if civil verdicts go against porn-makers, plaintiffs receive 25 percent of the awarded penalties, which could incentivize litigation and bankrupt independent operators.

Like other performers, Alyce does solo cam shows (aided by Justin). Unlike traditional films, produced primarily in the greater Los Angeles area, these performers can be located anywhere. Since the initiative would require all “producers” to alert OSHA when they’re planning to film, this would create a database that performers say would put them in danger.

Alyce said she fears the prospect of getting roped into a lawsuit that exposes her real name and costs her her “vanilla” day job.

Yes on 60 campaign manager Rick Taylor doesn’t have much sympathy.

“Too bad!” he said. “Don’t break the law! Sorry. Don’t break the law. That’s all. This argument just blows me out. Like, ‘Oh my God, my name might get exposed!’ Well, if you don’t break the law, then don’t worry about it. You won’t be exposed.”

The bill is expected to cost the state more than $1 million in extra enforcement and several million in tax revenue, as adult film performers and producers have considered leaving the state.

If the proposition passes, the adult entertainment industry could try to halt its implementation by suing the state. If that happens, Attorney General Kamala Harris or her successor would have to decide whether to contest the lawsuit.

The next attorney general could decline to defend the initiative. In a case like that, Weinstein would be appointed special counsel to defend Prop. 60 at the taxpayers’ expense, an unprecedented addendum to the initiative. He could only be removed from this position by a majority vote from both houses of the state Legislature.

“I have never heard of anything like this before—the leader of a nonprofit organization writing themselves into an essentially untouchable political position through the course of a voter proposition or law,” said Dr. Chauntelle Tibbals, sociologist and author of Exposure, a book about the adult film industry.

AHF is the sole financial backer of the “Yes” campaign. So far, it has spent more than $2 million, more than eight times the opposition.

For their part, Alyce and Justin say Prop. 60 is sold as protection but stows a morality agenda that endangers small-timers like themselves.

“It’s scary for us little guys,” Justin said. “We could have a government agency come crashing down on us for doing something that we love, and is fun, and gives a couple people an escape from their daily lives.”